Course Details

Broadband Policy

This seminar focuses on regulation of the companies that provide the infrastructure and service of Internet communications, as well as some of the principal services provided over them. In an earlier era, we called these companies telephone companies, cell phone companies, satellite companies, and cable television companies. To their ilk, we today add search engines (Google), content distribution networks (Level 3), and new data companies. In this seminar, we will tackle the three foundational issues for this policy space: First, how do these technologies work? Second, what are the business models that are built on these technologies? And, third, what should be the government reaction to the technology and business models – both in the sense of whether there should be any regulation at all, what that regulation should be, and what regulatory bodies should be relevant. We will look at modern issues such as Net Neutrality, Search Engine Regulation, Spectrum Reform, Interconnection, and Universal Service, to name a few. We will dip into the rich history of communications regulation as necessary to address these issues. We will also touch on the related markets of content and applications providers -- what people actually use broadband network for. No technical background nor any background in economics is required, although a willingness to grapple with both will be useful. Method of evaluation: class participation, short class presentation, and research paper.
This seminar will satisfy the Research Writing requirement.